Pharmacokinetics Flashcards
What are the major routes by which drugs may be administered?
Dermal Subcutaneous Intramuscular Intraperitoneal Inhalation Ingestion Intravenous
What happens to a drug after it is absorbed?
Drug enters GIT and is absorbed
Travels to liver via hepatic portal system
Enters systemic circulation
What factors determine drug distribution?
- Regional blood flow (higher [drug] affects CG)
- Extracellular binding (plasma proteins)
- Capillary permeability
- Localisation in tissues (lipophilic drugs localise in fatty tissue)
What are the principle routes of drug excretion?
- Eliminated through kidneys - converted into something water-soluble and excreted in urine
- Liver - drugs concentrated in bile and bile excreted into intestines - large molecular weight drugs
Also lungs, skin, GI secretions, saliva, sweat, milk, genital secretions
What is drug metabolism a potential point of?
Interaction between drugs
What is enterohepatic circulation?
Once excreted into the gut via bile, the drug (or metabolite) may be reabsorbed
Circulation of biliary acids, bilirubin, drugs, etc. from liver –> bile –> SI –> absorption by enterocyte and transport back to liver
Drug trapped in cycling process persists in body for longer than expected
What is biological half-life?
Time taken for concentration of drug in the blood/plasma to fall to half its original value
What is apparent volume of distribution?
The theoretical volume needed to contain the total amount of drug in the body if the drug was evenly distributed throughout the body and in the same concentration as the site of sample collection, e.g. peripheral venous plasma
What is bioavailability?
Proportion of administered drug that is available within the body to exert its pharmcological effect
= post-hepatic concentration
Amount that leaves the liver and enters systemic circulation
What is drug clearance?
- The volume of plasma/blood cleared of a drug per unit time
- Related to volume in which the drug is dissolved and rate at which drug is eliminated
- Incorporates excretion through bile, kidneys and all other routes
How do compartments and barriers differ? Examples
Compartments are aqueous, e.g. blood, lymph, ECF
Barriers are lipid, e.g. cell membranes
Why do drugs exist in a dynamic equilibrium of their ionised and non-ionised forms?
Most drugs are weak acids or weak bases
What does the ratio of ionised to non-ionised drug depend on?
pH of environment
pKa of molecules
How are drugs excreted by the kidney?
- Majority of drug excreted enters urine via active secretion rather than UF
- At glomerulus, drug-protein complexes are not filtered (too large)
- At proximal tubule - active secretion of acids and bases
- At proximal and distal tubules - lipid soluble drugs reabsorbed (can prolong life of drug)
How are drugs excreted by the liver?
Biliary excretion allows conc of lipophilic, large molecular weight molecules
Drugs hitch a ride on active tranport systems geared for transport of bile acids and glucuronides into bile
Drugs can do this bc they are non-polar and large MW